Being ambidextrous means being able to use both hands equally. The amount of people who are naturally ambidextrous is very low (1% of the population). This means, that most NBA players that you see that claim to be ambidextrous actually achieved this by practicing with both hands, or by using one hand for certain tasks and the other for other tasks while growing up. One question that comes up frequently in regards to being ambidextrous is does it help in basketball. Here’s the answer:
Being an ambidextrous as a basketball player could really help. It can be helpful especially when it comes to dribbling and finishing at the hoop. You want to choose one specific hand for your jump shot, but in terms of dribbling and driving to the hoop you want to be able to use both hands equally. So the answer is yes, being ambidextrous can really help in basketball.
In the rest of this article, we will get into how you can improve your weak hand, some players that are ambidextrous and more!
What Are Some Things You Could Do To Improve Your Weak Hand For Basketball
So if you’re a little behind in terms of being ambidextrous, there’s no need to worry. There’s plenty of things you could do (things I’ve personally done), to improve the skills of your off hand. Let’s dive into a few different way you could improve your ability to do everything with both hands. These things will include things on and off the court, so you could always be working on it!
Draw With Your Off Hand
One thing I’ve done to improve my left hand (I’m righty) is draw with my left hand. This helps you gain some coordination when it comes to the little movements in your hand and fingers. It may feel really weird at first, but over time you will improve very fast. You’ll notice a huge difference when you pick up the ball over time. You’ll realize that the ball doesn’t fly out of your hands in certain scenarios like it used to. Especially when performing dribble moves like in and out/ hesitation dribbles.
You’ll also feel increased control when you go up for a left hand layup. You’ll feel as if you could put English on it that you weren’t able to before, increasing your ability to attack from different angles.
Brush Your Teeth With Your Off Hand
This is another thing you could incorporate into your routine in order to improve your off hand. This is another way to improve the strength of your off hand, and even arm as your whole arm is involved in brush your teeth. It’s a different type of movement than drawing with your left, and will help diversify the ability of your hand and arm.
Practice Dribbling With Your Off Hand Frequently
Now we can dive into the basketball aspect of things. This combined with the above methods will really help improve your off hand fast. You want to practice dribbling with your off hand frequently. You want to practice different variations of dribbling using your off hand. These variations include:
In And Out Dribbles
In and out dribbles are a great way to get used to dribbling with your off hand. Most people can master dribbling the ball straight up and down with their off hand, but it’s the variation moves that throw them off while they are in a game situation. In an out dribbles can quickly develop the hand eye coordination you need to improve your off hand.
Dribbling Normal But As Fast As You Can
Like I stated above, most people could dribble normal with their off hand, but how fast can they go? The key is to dribble extremely fast in order to push yourself to your limit and improve. If you’re not losing the ball every couple seconds, you’re not going fast enough. Try and come up with a system where you can count the number of dribbles you do per minute, or whatever your preferred time frame is.
Low Dribbles
Last but not least incorporate low dribbles. Low dribbles will allow you to develop your fingertips in your off hand so you can control the ball a little bit better. You’ll be able to make the little detailed moves due to this increased strength and coordination. The key to this is to also go as fast as possible.
Practice Using Your Off Hand On Drives
The last thing you should do is practice using your off hand on drives to the basket. Don’t just do normal layups (although that will be part of what you need to do), but mix it up. Here’s a list of things you should be doing to improve your off hand when it comes to driving to the basket.
Practice Over Hand and Underhand Layups
Over hand and Underhand Layups are both important for certain situations. You want to practice driving to the hoop with your off hand and do variations of both of these layups. You should do one set of 5 overhand layups and then 5 underhand layups. This way you could get used to controlling the ball.
Practice Different Angles
It’s important to practice driving in with your left from different angles. Let’s say you have the ball on the right side of the court and they cut you off on your right hand (you’re able to drive with your left). You want to be able to perform a layup going from your right side to your left, with your left hand.
The same thing goes for reverse layups, eurosteps layups, etc. The bottom line is you want to put yourself in so many different scenarios using your off hand that you have zero problems when the game comes around.
Practice Passing With Your Off Hand
Last but not least, practicing the pass with your off hand is also very prevalent when it comes to improving your off hand. This is also one of the most overlooked things by players when it comes to developing the off hand.
When you’re dribbling with your off hand, you want to be able to push a strong pass directly out of that hand. If you can’t do this, it may take a lot of time to switch the ball over to your strong hand and make the pass. By the time you do this, the window you have to pass has already closed.
Here’s a drill you could do in order to improve passing with your off hand:
- Go next to a solid wall, preferably outside or inside a gymnasium
- Start by dribbling with your off hand, aim for 5 dribbles
- After every 5th dribble practice an off hand pass off the wall
- Have the ball bounce back to you, dribble 5 times again & repeat
- Alternate between bounce passes and direct off the wall passes because each one requires different muscles in order to be successful
- Do 10 reps, rest and repeat as needed
Who Are Some Ambidextrous Players In The NBA?
Paying attention to players who are ambidextrous may help you realize how much of an advantage it can be to have a dominant off hand. We’re going to go over a few ambidextrous players.
Kobe Bryant
When you watch highlights of Kobe Bryant, you could see he could do things with the ball with both hands. In this video specifically, you could see when players cut him off on his right side he was able to turn around and shoot the ball with his left hand. This made him unstoppable.
Kyrie Irving
Kyrie Irving is another one. Technically Kyrie has no off hand. He can lay the ball up on both sides. Not only can he do that, but he can score the ball equally when it comes to different angles and different speeds with both hands. Kyrie Irving is also arguably the best ball handler in basketball history, and can do whatever he wants with either hand.
Lebron James
Other than shooting a basketball, Lebron does absolutely everything with his left hand. Combined with his athleticism, he’s able to go either way at all will and finish the play. This is what makes Lebron so hard to stop. As you can see in this video, Lebron could put up left hand shots with the best of them.
In Summary
Now you know how important it is to use both hands equally and what you could do about it. It’s time to get to work. If you have any there methods as to how you can improve your off hand, leave them in the comments. Also, click on the tags below in order to see similar blog posts on our site!
